1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to a network security apparatus and method and, more particularly, to a network security apparatus and method that are capable of, without either using the resources of a communication node at the communication node corresponding to a monitoring target or generating additional traffic through a network over which the communication node corresponding to a monitoring target communicates, monitoring whether the communication node performs only communication complying with security policies and also performing remote management and the transmission of a related security log.
2. Description of the Related Art
Security software, such as an antivirus program and a personal firewall, is chiefly used to perform network security for a personal computer (PC) or a server. In this case, conventional security software is disadvantageous in that the running of the security software may exert a bad influence on the performance of a system to be protected or the security software may be stopped or infected by a computer virus or malware.
As an example, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2011-0061784 entitled “Network Attack Defending Apparatus and Method, and Packet Transmission and Reception Processing Apparatus and Method including Same” discloses network security technology that is advantageous in that it can deal with strong attacks compared to methods using software and in that load is not exerted on a server because hardware determines whether a normal connection is set up and, thus, attacking packets from the outside are rarely transferred to a server.
However, the network security technology disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2011-0061784 is disadvantageous in that traffic generated upon updating security software or transmitting a security log to a central server may act as load exerted on a network. Furthermore, the network security technology is problematic in that communication with the outside performed to update security software may be used as a path through which a computer virus or malware propagates.